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the Week Time is nature’s way of keeping everything
from happening at once. Table of Contents * featured articles Commentaries from Our Members Jack
Greenlaw: Homosexuality, Given or Chosen? Liberals and Democrats 3 Types of
Puget Sound Liberals Should Cooperate * Training
and Communication for LD Democrats * Imagine
a Congressman Rodney Tom Forum State and Local Grocery
Workers Form Ties with Liberal Community * Picketing
Against Bush and Reichert Seattle
Times and PI Local Political News Is Inadequate Nation and World Tax Reform
for Fairness, Job Creation and Simplicity Our
Liberal Spirit Victims, Enablers and Compassion * Calendar of Events à
next page Our Political Priorities ·
Fair Elections and Open Government ·
Fair Taxes and Competent Spending ·
Investment for Productivity ·
Quality Health, Education, Jobs, Income and Retirement ·
Environmental Sustainability and Energy ·
Personal Security and Equal Rights ·
Justice and Peace Everywhere ·
International Cooperation and Leadership Conservatives oppose all of these. Let’s End Our National Nightmare Restore Our American Dream
Experiences,
Reality and Dreams *
Calendar of Events
King
County Democrats - Legislative District Meetings
Thurston County
Progressive Net Calendar
Washington
Public Campaigns Calendar
Schedule
of Liberal films on PBS
Wednesday, September 5 at 6:30 at Heritage Hall (
Tuesday, September 11 at 11 AM at the Space Needle,
a silent funeral march for all that
has been lost since the tragic events of September 11, 2001, sponsored by the
Freedom From Fear Campaign. Wear black.
Friday,
September 28 at 6 PM at Bellevue Community College R-Courtyard – International Day of Piece candlelight
vigil with reflections, songs, stories and poems sponsored by students of
BCC, Eastside Fellowship of Reconciliation, Eastside Friends and others. For
more information
Friday,
September 28 at 6:30 PM at
Commentaries From Our
Members
Commentary by Our Correspondent Jack
Greenlaw
Homosexuality:
Why are some people
straight and some gay? Does one wake up
one morning and decide: “I think I’ll be gay or I guess I’ll be
straight?”
“Many conservative
Christian authors who have written on homosexuality maintain that sexual
orientation is not determined by one's genes. Rather, it is a chosen
behavior that is largely determined by the person's childhood experiences.”
“There is a near consensus
among human sexuality researchers and mental health professionals that sexual
orientation is not a matter of choice, that it is not changeable, and that it
has a strong genetic cause.”
I believe that I have been
gay my entire life. Many studies
attribute being gay to the way that our parents raised us: “A nurturing mother, a standoffish father.” My parents raised six children: 5 males and one female. As far as I can determine, I am the only gay
one in the bunch. If my Mom and Dad made
me gay, how come the other 5 are all straight, married to persons of the
opposite sex and (supposedly) happy in their lives? Why would my mother and father make me gay
and not them?
This makes absolutely no sense to a reasonable
person. Would a reasonable person choose to be
vilified by the majority of citizens in his/her community by “choosing” a
lifestyle that could conceivably get him/her beaten up as a child and thrown
out of their home because of their “chosen” lifestyle? I say absolutely not.
Do not
misinterpret this article: I am happy
with whom I am and would not change my sexual orientation even if it was
possible. I love my life and my
partner and would not do anything to change the love that has become part of my
life. I was fortunate that my parents
accepted my sexual orientation early in life and did not choose to ostracize me
and banish me from their (my) home (some of my brothers did, but that is an
altogether different story).
Believe me, this forum
will not be all about me and what/who I am.
I did want the readership to get a feel for who I am and how I feel
about myself and my sexual orientation before I become a regular contributor. I will not continue to bore you with personal
aspects of my (rather mundane) life.
My next article will
(hopefully) lead you through the candidates (both Democrats and Republicans)
and how they feel about the issues of the gay and lesbian “lifestyle”. I will attempt to touch on some of their
personal comments as well as their public stands on our issues and, perhaps,
why I agree and/or disagree with them.
It will be difficult to include all of the candidates (and there are
many), but I will touch on as many as I can. I am also soliciting commentary from the
lesbian community as I do not pretend to know and understand their issues and
feelings. I have many lesbian friends whom I cherish, but would not pretend to
speak for them.
I told Dave that I will
attempt to be a regular contributor, but I rather doubt that it will be a
weekly column. Dave has more time on his
very competent hands than I and that is much appreciated. Owning a home (with my life partner) in Lake
Hills requires me to keep a full time job at the moment. I would, however, appreciate your comments:
Both negative and positive, for this is how I feel that I can grow and
improve. I would also like to
acknowledge and thank those of you who chose to email me with your comments. I promise to take all of your criticism to
heart and will acknowledge each and every one of you that choose to write to
me.
So, my liberal
friends: I hope that these two short
articles caught your attention and garnered your interest. Comments to:
jaxons@isomedia.com. Or in the
comments section of this newsletter would be appreciated... So long for now, and take care of those that
you love,
Thanks for Your
Corrections
Last week, I did a
particularly lousy job of editing: misspelling, extra non-grammatical words,
not deleting items from recommendations rendered irrelevant by primary election
results. Thanks for your various
corrections which have been made on our website copy. Dave Thomas
Liberals and Democrats
Three Types of Active
Attending the protests against President Bush’s
visit to raise campaign funds for Congressman Dave Reichert reminded me that
active
·
Maintaining basic
liberal principles (such as those who participated in the protests)
·
Obtaining political
power to realize liberal principles (such as those who participate in Democratic Party
meetings)
·
Advocating for specific
issues or groups (such as gays, immigrants, housing, education, etc.)
Interestingly, most active
Attending groups in all of these three categories,
I seldom see people at one group who participate in the other categories. The main exception with which I am acquainted
is the King County Legislative Action Committee. And some Legislative District Organizations
conduct outreach to various issue and advocacy groups. See the websites for
our LDs numbered 26, 31, 34, 44, 45, and 46.
Apparently most of us are too busy to participate
actively in more than one organization or type of organization. Or maybe our motivation points primarily in
only one direction. I believe we would
gain a lot if these various types of groups could work closer together. This would be facilitated greatly if more
Liberals were active in more than one of these.
Our
Training and Communication for Legislative District
Democrats
Training
Effective organizations train their members. They provide a bootcamp, specific training
events, educational materials and newsletters, and trainers or mentors. Does your legislative district offer any of
these. If not, appoint a training
officer (backed by an education committee), prepare and disseminate materials,
schedule regular or specific training events.
Especially for new members, training demonstrates that you take your mission
and activities seriously. More
important, you accomplish much more when your members are trained and
effective. At least 15 minutes at each
regular meeting might well be directed to training. Another 30 minutes might be devoted to
sharing thoughts concerning basic values (as our 5th LD is doing)
and priorities.
Assuming you have created plans which include
various activities, training is needed for most of these activities and may
well begin when the planning occurs.
Planning workshops should include brief training lectures before each of
the Vision, Obstacles, Strategies and Tactics sections. These should then be followed by a Training
Section and a Reflective Celebration for completing the work.
Important general training topics include (1)how to
plan, (2) how to organize activities, (2) how to lead, and (3) how to work
cooperatively. Other topics may include
(4) membership recruitment, motivation and training; (5) precinct organizing
(including especially canvassing); (6) fund and resource raising; (7) event
planning; (8) database management; (9) candidate recruitment and training; (10)
outreach collaboration with democratic party and other political groups, and
more depending upon your activities.
Formal training may include lectures (even 3 minute
short courses), seminars in which participants jointly study papers or
audio-video presentations, and role playing.
Less formally, every member could be assigned a mentor who is
responsible for assisting that member’s success. As we all have experienced, training makes an
enormous difference in motivation, skill and effective performance.
Communication